deposition,
and during those two years it was probably in the hands of Borgio, for
by the old processes such a large diamond would take fully that time,
if not longer, to cut. " Thus," continues King, from whom we are
quoting, " almost immediately upon the great stone being put into
Borgio's hands, its rightful owner had lost all control over it. In
fact had he been able or permitted to superintend the operation, there
can be no doubt his experience and taste in such matters would have
brought about a widely different result."
The
subsequent history of the Great Mogul from the time it was seen by
Tavernier in 1665, remains a blank. Henceforth no distinct reference
anywhere occurs to it, and although we may presume that it continued in
the possession of Aurung-zeb's successors down to the sack of Delhi by
Nadir Shah, we have no knowledge of what became of it on that memorable
occasion. The authorities are almost unanimous* in assuming that the
big stone carried off by the Persian invader, under circumstances to be
described further on, was the Koh-i-Nur. But amongst the spoils may of
course have also been the Great Mogul, though no distinct mention is
made of the fact. Hence some have thought that it is now amongst the
treasures of the Shah of Persia under
